My Perfect Weekend: Whanganui artist Rachel Dickison on cinnamon buns, kererū and Swanndris

Music and comedy are a must for Rachel Dickison's perfect weekend. Photo / Supplied

Each week a member of the community tells us what their perfect weekend in the region would be. This week Mike Tweed spoke to Rachel Dickison, a Whanganui-based artist specialising in ultra-realistic pencil drawings.

I’ll go down to the Saturday [Whanganui River] markets, have a really good day and sell lots of prints. Oh, and the weather is really good.

As a treat, I’ll have a cinnamon bun from Cinnamonui.

Then, if it’s daylight savings and I have a lot of energy left, my sister and I will head out to Bushy Park for a walk. We get very excited about the piwakawaka, saddlebacks and kererū.

The perfect end to the evening would be getting a beverage and listening to some live music and/or comedy. We would probably end up heading to Porridge Watson, which is the best place for that.

I love live comedy but it’s not as often as I’d love it to be. Samantha Hannah is my favourite lately, so seeing her would be great.

If it was music, it would be Reshma Martin who used to work there [Porridge] and is an amazing musician. I would love her to come back to Whanganui, but she’s going to skyrocket.

On a Sunday, a sleep-in is non-negotiable and then it’s off for a bagel at Little Curious.

After that, I would go to my studio, put on some music and outline my latest work to get the ball rolling.

It’s going to be a New Zealand farm dog wearing classic Kiwi farm gear like a Swanndri.